I just found an 87 Samurai for my wifes sister and she is psyched about it!We picked it up a couple oif days ago and I am getting the bugs out before she picks it up. Now I am a YJ guy, don't know Suzukis so I figured I would post and see what you guys can suggest.
First of all it is gonna be a stocker for the time being. If she wants to wheel it I will be more than happy to build it for her but for now I want a safe fun reliable vehicle that a 19 year old spunky 5 foot tall girl can enjoy and get her to school and job etc.
The Sammi looked good at first (69k miles) and the worries of the previous
:rainbow: owner of it handling funny on freeway were obvious to me at first glance. It had bald cracked 30 inch tires and was lifted only by huge-ass shackles!I figured that this was an advantage because he thought he was getting rid of a road hazard! Anyway, since it will be her daily driver I bought a set of 225x70R15 tires and swapped in some YJ stock shackles. This brought the gearing much closer to stock and fixed the caster problem (she can lift it later)Also replaced the shocks with stock ones because the Rancho shocks in there were oversized. Now it runs great and handles nicely. Here are my questions.
First, the suspension is very stiff and barely flexes at all. You feel every bump. Is this usual for a stock sammi? Do people ever disconnect the swaybar and does this help any? Not ready to do a SPOA yet but if she is so inclined and has the money that would be the way to lift it BUT, what is the stock gearing and are there any tricks to get axles with lower gears that fit?
As for actual problems, both the gas guage and temperature guage peg out at the top regardless of temperature or gas fill. Is that a common problem? What would cause it? Otherwise everything seems good, so let me know. Thanks in advance and if this was a Jeep I know these are JU questions, but I don't know of any "Suzukis Unlimited" so if there is such a place let me know

go buy some cheep gab. red dyder shocks, most "good" shocks seem to stiff on a zuke.

Guages, sounds like your basic grounding problem. With it being those 2 together id start under/near the dash, wiggle the cluster connector and see if it fixes it, then maybe look for some obvious stuff, like a ground scew missing w/ 2-3 wires not being grounded. Ive seem people do goofy stuff just to hook up a raido or somthing, if not there look in the engine compartment for ground wires off.

Last resort break out the meter and start testing away.

Good choice on tire size for a stocker....keep it simple....she'll have fun with it...
-yag

Well Well Well...............look at what he have here boy's and girls!!!!!! Looks like a Jeep guy can't figure out the superior trail rig. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha................Just kidding!!!!


1st buy some cheep as monro shocks.

2nd yes samurais ride like shit untill you spring them over and then they still are not Caddies!!!!!

3rd you can buy lower gears for the axles but most guys save there $$$ and swap out axles Toyota, D44 Ect.

4th The sway bar well I took mine off after I did the SPOA but never had it off sprung under. Not really sure if it will help or hinder you.

5th the gages.........well I have no clue never had that prob and I am on my 3rd samurai.



Oh yeah and one last thing.........welcome to the lovely world of working on a samurai!!!!!!
:flipoff2: :flipoff2: :flipoff2:

Sidekick/Tracker front carirers will bolt in F&R on a Sammi. Usually 4.62 (auto) or 5.12(stick) . Stock Sammi is 3.73. They are aluminum, but for what she is doing it probably doesnt matter. The gears can be pulled and installed in the steel sammi carriers if you want.

National Springs are supposed to give a decent ride SPUA.

This is the Zuk analogy of JU.

http://tellico.off-road.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=offroadsuzuki

Have fun.

Jim

thanks for the advice so far. I did replace the shocks with cheap Monroes. Ride is better than before but still stiff. I hear that YJ springs are a good way to go but that the conversion costs a couple hundred or more so we are staying with the stiff ride for now. I understand suspensions better than electrical stuff but am gonna tinker today and see if I can figure out the guage problem. It does sound like a loose ground or short circuit somewhere. I have located a couple of junkyard dashes for $50 a piece but they aren't as clean and maybe it really is a loose wire...

There isn't a lot that you can really do to improve the ride stock. These things are so light that you can run less air pressure which will help a little bit. I have also heard of people taking the overload out of the rear to improve the ride a bit.

here (http://www.off-road.com/suzuki/samurai/86samuraispec.htm) are some specs about the samurai that will give you the stock gearing and other useful info.

You can always swap in some YJ springs to improve the ride and the performance off-road. You can try disconnecting the sway bar, but be careful and see how it handles first. I never tried running mine on-road without it while it was stock so I'm not sure how it handles.

The easiest way to deal with the gearing is to swap out the tcase with either 4.16:1, 4.89:1, 5.8:1 or 6.1:1 gears. I run the 4.16's ($400 for the gears, $650 for a built tcase) with stock r/p's (3.73) and it can still go on the highway (mostly in 4th gear). They are cheap and will let you put 31's under there and still work well off-road. The 6.1's will allow 33's without changing out the r/p's.

There are a bunch of zuk sites on the web...lots of info out there. One of the easiet ways to take the edge off of the ride is to run the tire below the normal rating. Yeah it comprimises the rating, but you are no where near the limit anyway. I drove my lwb stock for almost a year, and it wasnt a bad little car. I even wheeled it bone stock and it did pretty good.

Hmm..tire pressure. The rating for it is 20 lbs. are you saying going lower on the highway? how low is too low for street?

Originally posted by Victor
Hmm..tire pressure. The rating for it is 20 lbs. are you saying going lower on the highway? how low is too low for street?

Make sure that's what is actually in there. I've gone in for work on mine before and typically have to explain to them to only put 20 pounds in. They tend to think it's like most other vehicles and try to put 32 pounds in it rather than what it recommends.